Railway Minister gives directions for “comprehensive training programme” for all employees of Indian Railways to boost productivity & efficiency.

This comprehensive training programme is being launched under the name “Project Saksham”.

The week-long training in skills and domain knowledge will be imparted to all the employees of Indian Railways.

The focus of all such training is to ‘make a difference’ to the job performance.

Under the direction of Minister of Railways & Coal, Shri Piyush Goyal, a comprehensive plan for imparting training to all employees of Indian Railways is being prepared with a view to upgrade skill & knowledge. This comprehensive training programme named as “Project Saksham” will help boost productivity and efficiency.

Under this plan, all employees in each zone will be put through a week’s training in skills and knowledge relevant to their work area over next one year. A communication to this effect from Chairman Railway Board, Shri Ashwani Lohani, has been sent to all General Managers of zonal railways and railways production unit.

General Managers have been advised that such priority training need should be quickly identified for each category of employees (employees can be grouped into their work areas) based on the needs of respective zone. Identification of training needs and formulation of planned training calendar will be required to be completed by December 31st, 2017, ensuring that each employee is imparted training.

It has been emphasized that while continuous learning and education/training has been an integral philosophy and approach of the Railways, there is a need to do a concentrated capsule of training for all employees in a short period of time to boost their productivity and efficiency. This training programme will fulfill this need.

With growing rail network, new trains, different high quality services designed by the railways and the promise of the government to deliver superior and safe rail services and growing expectation of our passengers and commuters for better amenities and services, it is imperative that the railway employees rise to the occasion to deliver on the promise. Employees can and do deliver only when they have the right skills, knowledge and the mindset to deliver to the new standards of excellence that the organization hold from them all. This training will help achieve these objectives.

This training shall be a five-day on the job training or as classroom training in Railway Training Centre depending on the nature of training. However, the reporting managers of all employees receiving training will be actively involved in the Pre-training and post training process to ensure that the benefits of training get reflected on the job performance and there is improvement within a short time after the training is imparted. The focus of all such training will be to ‘make a difference’ to the job performance of all departments and employees and thus Indian Railways.

The training, as per the calendar, will be completed within 9 months. General Managers have been directed to personally monitor the completion of the plans and their progress. The zone will also devise a few metrics to monitor the impact of Project Saksham.

This training will not only upgrade skill of each of the employees but also go a long-way in improving the performance of the Indian Railways.